Territorial demographics over thirty years - The structuring role of the Paris basin and the very large urban areas

Between 1982 and 2011, France gained 9.4 million inhabitants, 20% of them in the Paris urban area and 30% in the 13 largest urban areas outside Paris. The influence of these latter areas has grown constantly. In many agglomerations the city centre has lost inhabitants who have moved to neighbouring municipalities. Overall, rural municipalities have not lost inhabitants since the 1970s. They have even gained inhabitants when they are close to large agglomerations.